


wherever you are feels like home

by neonmoonlight



Category: One Direction (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Aromantic Character, Asexual Character, Coming Out, Family Fluff, Found Family, Growing Up, Multi, Pack Dynamics, Past Abuse (mentioned), Summer Solstice, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-18 02:44:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11282124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neonmoonlight/pseuds/neonmoonlight
Summary: “Proud of you, daisy chain,” Niall said, pressing a kiss to Louis’ cheek. Louis hummed and rested his head on Niall’s shoulder. The five of them sat in comfortable silence for a couple minutes before Liam started talking about some cool astrology stuff he picked up from a shop in town for one of the girls who lives in the sanctuary. Louis settled into the warm feeling of having his pack always with him.Later on, when the five of them were all sprawled out on the sand and watching the stars above them, Louis felt like he was whole and content. Being surrounded by a loving pack that accepted him for who he was, was all Louis could have possibly asked for, and he was so glad that he found a home with his pack after waiting for so long.or the soft found family pack fic ft trans girl and aro harry, agender and aro niall, ace louis and liam, coming out and lots and lots of fluff.





	wherever you are feels like home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [geewhizmo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/geewhizmo/gifts).



> So it was hard for me to pick a prompt for this, but when I saw that there was a pack fic I immediately was sucked in and decided to do it because we all need some nice soft pack fics in fandom
> 
> Shoutout to the love of my life, [Ash](http://archiveofourown.org/users/babyashleym) for betaing this fic for me and putting up with my shit tenses. love u dude. 
> 
> Here's everyones orientations before we get to the fic:  
> -Harry: transgirl (she/her) and panro flux  
> -Niall: agender (they/them) and and ace. They figure out they're agender halfway through the fic.  
> -Louis: demiboy (he/him) and ace. He figures it out at the end.  
> -Zayn: cis (he/him) and ace  
> -Liam: cis (he/him) and aro. 
> 
> That's about it, hope you enjoy the fic!!

 

Louis learned from a young age that there were some packs out in the world who, for one reason or another, mistreated their members. He was lucky enough to live in a sanctuary pack that was around an hour drive from the nearest major city. Louis was aware that city packs tended to be more toxic than the packs in the country, and at least half of the members of his own pack were kicked out from city packs. Louis was also taught to never look down on anyone, no matter what they present as, since presentation never equals potential. 

Whenever he saw lost wolves wander into the pack compound, Louis did his best to make them feel at ease, and reassure them that nothing bad would happen as long as they were part of the sanctuary pack. Louis knew from around the time he was five or six that there was nothing he wanted to do more than help people feel safe. 

 

Around the time Louis was seven, a mother arrived to the pack with three children: two daughters, and a son. The oldest girl was ten, and seemed to have some idea what was going on. She was the only one who actually talked to Louis and seemed the most grown up. She didn’t look down at Louis for being three years younger than her, probably because she realized that he was just trying to help them feel comfortable in what he was hoping would be their new home. 

After a minute or so of chatting, Jay came out and lead the mother inside the main house of the compound, then told Louis to show her kids around for a bit before lunch. Louis did, and showed them to his little play area in the courtyard of the compound. He then spent a little while trying to get the girls to play dinosaur pirates with him. The oldest one, Nicola did for a little bit before getting bored and dragging her sister, Ruth, off to another side of the courtyard where there was some other toys to play with. Louis was left with Liam, who was quietly playing with some of the dino toys.

From the moment that Louis moved over next to Liam and played with him, the two of them were inseparable. So much so that when Louis presented as an omega at twelve and Liam as an alpha a year later, everyone thought that they would get together and have it just be the two of them. And while they did get together, the two of them didn’t feel really complete with just the two of them so they broke it off. 

 

♠️♠️

 

When Louis was seventeen, Niall showed up on the compound steps in the middle of the night during a really bad thunderstorm. He stumbled inside, his neck bleeding, though he was completely clear headed otherwise. Louis sat him down in the kitchen of the main house and checked over his neck while he had Lottie woke up Jay. When she finally came down, Louis put bandages on the broken bond that was bleeding, and had Niall wrapped up in a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate. When prompted, he explained how he heard of the sanctuary pack on the outskirts of the suburbs outside his city. He had been saving up to leave his pack once he realized how toxic everything was. To be precise, when he realized that omegas shouldn’t be treated like shit for the amusement of fucked up alphas. So he broke the bond he had, grabbed his money and a small bag of his stuff and left. 

 

Jay gave him a room to stay in the compound for a bit until his broken bond healed and he adjusted more to the new pack. Once he got settled, he asked Louis to stay for a bit and just talk to him, and he did. The next day, Niall sought Louis out and followed him around, talking sporadically, but mostly listening to Louis and observing what he did. Niall was wary of Liam at first when he came over around lunch, but eventually decided that Liam could be trusted and talked to him more. 

 

The broken bond eventually healed and the three of them got closer than ever, and anyone who saw them thought that the three of them were pack, and they were but they still felt incomplete. So they didn’t announce that they were pack, because they weren’t really pack. Not yet at least. 

 

♠️♠️

 

Zayn showed up around a year after Niall did. He was from a city pack and one of the rare betas that actually showed up at the sanctuary, since most betas are lone wolfs. He showed up in the middle of a warm spring day, his reasoning being that he couldn’t handle how toxic his pack was, and how strict everything was, especially on the betas and omegas of the pack. 

He had a lot of tattoos for someone who was only eighteen. Zayn told Louis all about them one late night when the two of them were lying on the compound roof, staring up at the stars. Majority of the tattoos covered up old scars from the strict pack leader who punished people for the slightest discretion. Zayn couldn’t be bonded, and he was thankful for that since he felt like if he was an omega he would’ve been bonded to the pack as soon as he presented and he heard about how hard it was for bonds to get broken. 

He told Louis about how some of the omegas were chained up in the pack leader’s basement and how the weaker alphas were forced to spend days outside in all conditions to ‘toughen them up’. Louis pulled Zayn into his arms when he started to break down, telling him all about how nice it was in the sanctuary. 

 

It took almost half a year for Zayn to be mostly over what he had to go through with his old pack. In that time, Louis helped him adjust to the pack and figure out what he wanted to do to help the pack and the sanctuary. Louis and Niall spent most of their time helping out with the young children of the pack. Liam helped out with the paperwork, and a lot of the other boring work. He said that it helped him focus, and that he likes having tedious work he could lose himself in. Zayn told Louis that he’s really only good at artsy stuff, and not so much on the muscle work of the place.

Eventually he found his place with helping cleaning up and restoring houses that got added to their territory as it expanded. Despite the fact that the four of them were pack, Louis still felt like it wasn’t complete. 

 

♠️♠️

 

It wasn't until Louis was nearly twenty that Harry showed up at the compound. She had a broken arm, a black eye, and was carrying a backpack that was just close to falling apart - it was more duct tape than actual cloth. When Louis asked what happened, she simply grinned and said that she hated being a bystander. Louis smiled fondly at her, and brought her in so he could look at her injuries, and so she could meet Jay. 

 

Later, after her broken arm was set, and she had something to eat, she told Louis, and Niall who was in the kitchen at the time, about how she’s been wandering from pack to pack since she presented as an alpha at fifteen and came out as trans. Harry said her parents tried to fight to keep her in the pack but the Elder Council said it was disgraceful for her to be trans and an alpha. So she was kicked out, and had the family and pack bond broken and was banned from the territory. 

 

Since then she mostly drifted from city to city to see if she could join a pack. She’d been able to be part of a pack for a couple months at a time before she was kicked out for some reason or she left. She got kicked out of the last pack a state over for getting in a fight with the leader over how he treated omegas. She stayed at a shelter for a day or so before heading to the sanctuary pack that she heard about from the kind lady alpha who ran the shelter. She told Harry about how the Tomlinson’s accept anyone into the pack and help them heal and recover in a safe space. 

Louis told her that they welcome everyone who is in need of a place to stay that can guarantee safety, and no discrimination. Louis said that throughout the years, he’s seen people come and go in the sanctuary and that some don’t stay for long and others stay for their whole lives but it’s always up to the person. Harry simply smiled at that and went back to drinking the tea that Niall gave her. 

Harry settled into the pack just fine, helping out in the garden mostly and with some classes that the pack offered. Over the course of a few months, she slowly drifted into the pack that was made up of Louis, Liam, Niall and Zayn. She was wary at first of relationship connotations of it, since she wasn’t about that at all but Niall, who was also not about the romance, said that they aren’t really dating and are just in a pack. After all, packs have a higher standing than friendships but are just as important as romantic relationships. Eventually, Harry settled into their own little pack, within their larger pack and to Louis, it felt complete, and whole then. He couldn’t have been happier. 

 

♠️♠️

 

June 21st was one of Louis’ favorite days of the year. The summer solstice was always a day of celebration in the sanctuary and it usually results in a pack run near sunrise. Louis was actually shaking from excitement and the energy drink he had earlier. Not only was it the summer solstice and classes were finally out for the summer, it was also the first solstice celebration as a complete pack. Harry had lots of questions on how things worked from the smallest details, to how the pack runs usually went on the solstice. She followed Louis and Niall around, asking question after question about everything. 

 

At the moment, she was helping Liam set the picnic tables up in the shady grove of trees next to the main pack house. While Zayn was running around helping set up food, and decorations, helping people out wherever he could. Louis and Niall were sat on the porch steps, taking a break from helping Jay and others in the kitchen getting food ready. Niall had been quiet all day, acting strangely, and not as bubbly as he usually was, so Louis pulled him out of the kitchen and declared that the two of them were going to take a break. Niall just went along with it without any kind of protest. 

 

“Ni, are you okay?” Louis asked softly, pulling Niall closer to his side. Niall simply nodded and just stared off into the trees. 

 

“”M fine Lou, it’s nothing,” Niall said, mumbling slightly. Louis just sighed softly, and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. 

 

“Well if you want to talk, just let me know okay, sunshine?” Niall nodded and ducked his head, fiddling with the hem of his tank top. Louis pressed a kiss to his head and watched as Liam and Harry set up the tables. The two of them sat in comfortable silence for a couple minutes before Niall spoke up again. 

 

“Lou… you know how Harry is a girl?” Niall asked, voice shaking slightly and hands gripping tightly onto his shirt. Louis untangled one of his hands from his shirt and held it in his own. 

 

“Yeah… Niall what’s up?” Louis spoke softly, trying not to make Niall feel scared to tell him. Niall took a deep shaky breath before answering. 

 

“What if… What if I said that I’m not a boy or a girl?” Niall whispered and looked over at Louis through his bangs which were down due to the humidity. Louis squeezed Niall’s hand and smiled softly. 

 

“Well I’d be happy for you for figuring that out,” Louis pressed a kiss to the top of Niall’s head, and gently placed his free hand on the side of Niall’s head and softly rubbed his cheek with his thumb. 

 

“Harry said that the term for me is agender,” Niall grabbed Louis’ other hand and held both of them in his own. “I think…I think I want to use they/them pronouns.” They said, looking up to Louis with hope and fear swimming in their blue eyes. Louis smiled widely and pressed kisses all over their cheeks. 

 

“I’m so proud of you sunshine, thank you for telling me,” Louis said inbetween kisses, causing Niall to start giggling. Louis pulled Niall into his arms, cuddling them close while they watched the party get set up. 

 

Harry came bounding over after a couple minutes, and draped her sweaty body on Louis, then giggled and hung onto him when he shrieked, and tried to push her off and onto the ground. Louis gave up after a minute of struggling and whined loudly for Liam. He actually dropped the streamers he was putting up and made his way over to the pack pile at the bottom of the steps and raised his eyebrow at Harry. She simply grinned and stuck her tongue out at Liam. He rolled his eyes in response but smiled fondly at the pack before pulling Harry off of Louis. 

 

“You three go clean up for the party, it should be starting soon,” Liam said and pressed a kiss onto each of their foreheads. Harry scrambled up and pulled Louis and Niall back into the kitchen. and then to Louis’ room to shower. 

 

♠️♠️

 

Sometime in the middle of June, Louis was sitting up in his attic studio on his laptop and sweating buckets, wishing the rickety ceiling fan actually worked and that there was an aircon unit in the attic. For the first time in a couple weeks, Louis had nothing to do, and asked his pack for some time to himself to figure stuff out. 

 

Recently, whenever someone outside the pack, be it part of the sanctuary pack or a wolf in the surrounding packs, made a comment about the sex life of the pack, it made Louis feel uncomfortable and squirmy. Louis would just give the person a tight lipped smile and say that he doesn’t talk about pack stuff with outsiders. 

It’d gotten to a point where Louis regularly found himself on the roof late at night, thinking about his presentation and how after he’d never had a single heat. He just would get a really high fever and be sick for a week whenever his heat was supposed to happen, but he never actually got one. That, plus Niall coming out as agender, led Louis to sneak away to the attic to do some research. Louis knew, logically, that he could’ve just looked stuff up in his room or even in the basement where his pack seemed to spend most of their time, but Louis was never one for logic when it comes to most things. 

 

He was in the attic for about an hour before Niall showed up, ice cold lemonade on a tray along with a bag of Whoppers. Louis set his laptop on the desk and turned to face Niall, smiling softly. They put the tray down on a table next to one of the windows and gently pulled Louis off of the ratty old office chair, pushing him onto the hammock that someone strung up a while ago. Niall climbed on next to him, and pulled Louis in close, gently swaying the hammock. 

 

“What’s up, daisy chain?” Niall asked, rubbing a hand along Louis side. Niall wasn’t the most tactile person in the pack, that went to Liam and Louis, but they could tell when someone else needed a comforting touch and their the one that knew what everyone's boundaries were. Louis sighed and curled into Niall, resting his head on their chest. 

 

“I think I’m ace,” Louis said, never one to beat around the bush about these kind of things. Niall hummed in understanding and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. 

 

“That’s awesome Lou,” Niall said softly, pulling Louis on top of them, causing the hammock to swing wildly. Louis gripped onto Niall tightly, yelling out in fear. Niall laughed and just kissed the top of Louis’ head. Louis sighed exasperatedly and curled up into Niall. 

 

“I think we should have a pack meeting tonight,” Louis said, whispering it into Niall’s collarbone, trying to calm down his racing heart by matching his breathing with theirs. They hummed in agreement and pushed against the wall gently, rocking the hammock slowly. 

 

“Later, let’s nap first,” They said, voice muffled by Louis’ hair. Louis nodded and closed his eyes, letting the exhaustion he was feeling take over and within a minute he was asleep. 

 

♠️♠️

 

Pack meetings were held on the shore of a lake that Louis and Liam found when they were still kids, and were exploring the forest behind the compound house. At first the lake was just a spot that Louis and Liam went to escape the sanctuary pack, but as time went on and Niall, Zayn and eventually Harry were added to their pack, the spot became their place to have meetings. 

After Niall and Louis woke up from their nap and had lunch, they went out and told the rest of the pack to meet at the lake. Louis grabbed a picnic basket that Jay had filled with snacks earlier. Once Louis was far enough into the woods behind the house, he stripped down and placed his clothes into the basket before shifting into his wolf form and carefully picking the basket handles in his mouth before running to the lake. Louis didn’t expect the others to show up soon after him so when he got to the lake, he placed the basket down a safe distance from the shore and went for a swim. 

 

Having the water flow over his head and completely encompass him calmed the jumbled mess that was his thoughts. He dived down as far as he could before his lungs forced him to go back up to the surface. When he surfaced, Zayn was sitting next to the picnic basket, hat and sunglasses on, and was munching on one of the many sandwiches that Jay made. Louis paddled over to the shore and shook himself off before shifting back to his human form and pulling on his shorts. Dropping down next to Zayn, Louis grabbed an apple out of the basket and rested his head on Zayn’s shoulder. Zayn shivered at the cold of Louis’ hair and wrapped a spare blanket he brought with him around Louis’ shoulders. The two of them sat in comfortable silence waiting for the rest to show up. 

 

After a couple minutes, Niall stumbled into the clearing and bowled Louis over with how fast they were going. Louis let out a shout and wrapped his arms around Niall’s neck, playfully growling and trying to get on the wolves back. Niall shifted back into their human form, causing both of them to collapse into the sand in a pile of limbs, giggling trying to get as much sand as they possibly could onto Zayn. Zayn whined loudly for the alphas who had just shown up, carrying blankets and towels. 

 

“Niall, Louis, stop bugging Zayn,” Liam said, spreading the blankets out on the sand. Louis and Niall both pulled away from Zayn, pouting up at Liam. Harry laughed and stripped down, dragging them both into the lake with her. Louis clinged to Harry’s body, yelling about how Liam was going to eat sand. Niall giggled and shifted back into their wolf form, swimming literal laps around Harry and Louis who started play wrestling in the water.

 

♠️♠️ 

 

By the time the sun was sinking down towards the horizon, Liam had already started up a campfire in the pit that him and Louis built when they were fifteen, and had the rest of the pack either dressed or wrapped up in towels. Louis was sandwiched between Harry and Liam, roasting marshmallows; the most at ease he’d been in a while. Harry was talking about some person she ran into that day while out in the town at the thrift store, looking for a book. Louis didn’t mean to interrupt her, but the words just jumped out of his mouth. 

 

“I think I’m asexual,” Louis blurted out, clamping his mouth shut and looking down at the sand when everyone looked at him, trying to fight the blush he could feel running up his neck.

 

“That’s pretty _ace_ Lou,” Harry said, wrapping an arm around Louis’ shoulder and pulling him into her side. Loud groans and protests of the pun were heard, but Louis giggled into his hands, relieved that at least someone could joke about it, and felt like a weight lifted of his shoulders. 

 

“Anything else Lou?” Zayn asked from across the fire. Louis wrapped an arm around Harry’s waist and sat up. 

 

“Uh, I’m pretty sure that I’m sex repulsed? Also I might be demiboy but I’m not sure yet,” Louis said, the last part a bit strained due to Harry squeezing him tightly. 

 

“Pronouns?” Niall asked, moving over and sitting down on Louis’ lap. They shoved at Harry until she caught the hint and let go of Louis. 

 

“He him, might change though.” 

 

“Proud of you, daisy chain,” Niall said, pressing a kiss to Louis’ cheek. Louis hummed and rested his head on Niall’s shoulder. The five of them sat in comfortable silence for a couple minutes before Liam started talking about some cool astrology stuff he picked up from a shop in town for one of the girls who lives in the sanctuary. Louis settled into the warm feeling of having his pack always with him. 

 

Later on, when the five of them were all sprawled out on the sand and watching the stars above them, Louis felt like he was whole and content. Being surrounded by a loving pack that accepted him for who he was, was all Louis could have possibly asked for, and he was so glad that he found a home with his pack after waiting for so long. 

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated!!! 
> 
> Follow me on [Tumblr](grapesodalou.tumblr.com)


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